CHAPTER 6

 

 

Knox

 

 

 

I pound on Ajia’s door before I stop walking. “Goddammit, Ajia! Open this fucking door! Right this fucking minute!”

I wait, not long, I admit it, and pound again when nothing happens. I can only guess what’s going on inside his room—and I don’t want any of the details, thank you very much.

“Ajia, you fucker! Open the goddamn door!”

I wait seconds longer and am almost ready to break the fucking thing down when I hear the locks clicking. The door swings inward, and Ajia stands in front of me wearing a pair of jeans. Zipped but unbuttoned.

We’re about the same height, the same build, but the similarities end there. Ajia is lighter, with blond hair and strangely colored brown eyes. He’s got an easier personality, not boisterous like Noah but not as heavy as me. It’s what makes us good songwriting partners.

That shit might just end. Tonight.

“Where is she?” I demand. I can’t see shit around him, and the longer he stands in my way, the more pissed off I am.

Ajia stares at me, his gaze flat and almost...resigned. To what? He’s the fucker who stepped over a line.

A big fucking line.

He steps back finally, spreading one arm wide. I shove my way inside and find Bree standing next to the unmade bed, her hair all tangled around her shoulders in that just-fucked look. She’s wearing Ajia’s favorite Led Zeppelin T-shirt—and nothing else, from what I can tell.

The details register in seconds. “You motherfucker!”

I spin on the ball of one foot, satisfaction zooming clear through me when my fist connects with his jaw. Ajia stumbles back against the wall.

“Knox!” Bree races across the room and shoves herself between me and him. “Stop it, right now! Goddammit!”

I pull my arm back, as pissed off as I’ve ever been, but I can’t do anything more with my sister between me and that asshole. I’m hanging on to my temper by a thread, but it’s strong enough to protect her. For now.

Something that fucker failed to do.

“Ajia, baby.” She reaches for his face. “Are you okay?”

What the fuck?

He grabs her hand and lowers it between them, then links their fingers together. He’s not looking at her, though; his gaze is focused totally on me.

“That’s your free one, bro,” Ajia says. “Maybe I even deserved it. But any more and I fight back.”

Not wasting any time with this shit. “Get the fuck away from him, Bree.”

“How did you find out?”

“That’s your question? You got nothing else to say?”

“Knox—”

“No, A,” Bree interrupts. “This is between my brother and me.”

“Fuck if it is.” That just pisses me off. “He’s the one—”

“Forget it.” She looks at me with a damn serious gaze. I don’t want to believe my fucking eyes when she steps closer to him. “You have no say in this.”

I shift forward and give her an ugly smile. “Oh, baby girl, I have a lot to fucking say about this. And you’re going to listen to every fucking word.”

Ajia pulls her close, like he’s protecting her. From me? “Cool the fuck off, man,” he says.

“Cool off?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing, and my laugh sounds nasty. “Cool off? You have no fucking clue what’s going on inside of me right now.”

“Got a pretty good idea. I get it, man. Let’s talk.”

Then the asshole spoils it by touching her hair. “You okay, baby?” He says it so softly, I almost don’t hear. “Why don’t you go on back to your room, and—”

“Good idea,” I snap. “You don’t need—”

“Don’t fucking tell me what I need to do! Either of you.” Bree moves aside and frowns from him to me. “I’m a big girl now. I get to decide what I do—and that’s not leaving the two of you alone to do whatever stupid shit you’d end up doing.”

“Bree…c’mon.” She’s full of shit if she thinks I’ll give up that easily. “You—this fucker—”

“What, Knox?” If I’m pissed, so is she. More than I can remember seeing her in a long fucking time. “What is it you think you have to say? Because I thought I put you on notice in Phoenix. Weren’t you listening? My life, my body—my decision! You don’t get to say one goddamn word about anything.”

Fuck! “You weren’t talking that way when you wanted help to get away from Gabe.” The words are out before I can think about what I’m saying.

“Son of a—”

Bree cuts off Ajia. “Knox, you goddamn asshole! That’s not the fucking same thing, and you know it.”

She’s right; I do know it. I’m just so fucking pissed, it’s all coming out wrong.

Pissed? A voice inside my head laughs at me. You aren’t mad. You’re fucking scared. Like a little girl pissing in her pants. And maybe even jealous! You don’t want to lose Bree, not to Ajia or anybody else. You want to be the one to keep her safe, like the sperm donor didn’t.

And that, I know, is complete and utter bullshit. The result of one too many Jack-on-the-rocks on top of all the other shit that’s been going on. I’m not scared or jealous. Protective, yeah, I’ll admit it. But this is Ajia fucking Stone, the face of Wycked Obsession and blue-ribbon manwhore.

Not the kind of guy I want my sister to date.

Date? Hell, it’s past that. The kind of guy I want my sister to fuck.

I lose my train of thought when Bree stalks up to me and pokes my chest. “Listen to me, Knox,” she says in a low voice that almost doesn’t sound like her, “because this is the last time I’m talking to you about any of it. That shit with Gabe wasn’t about my choices, my life, and you damn well know it. It was about our mother’s husband trying to force me into something sexual! Something I didn’t—and don’t—want. My relationship with Ajia is completely different.”

I know the first part is true and open my mouth to agree, but the rest of it echoes in my mind. My relationship with Ajia is completely different.

“He’s like your fucking brother!”

She laughs but doesn’t exactly sound amused. “Do you hear yourself? I have never seen Ajia as my brother, and you damn well know it. Everybody in the fucking band knows it. Hell, probably half of Austin knows it! I thought I was so clever, keeping my little a secret, but y’all knew. Y’all must have thought it was so cute. Silly little Bree with her big crush on a man like Ajia Stone.”

She shakes her head and sends a sharp look in my direction. “Well, the truth is, I’ve been in love with him since the first day we met. Love, Knox, not some stupid teenage crush. It’s been five years—five years—and my feelings have only gotten stronger.”

Five years? Five fucking years?

“So, all that shit you said in Phoenix?” The shit about nothing happening? “It was all fucking lies?”

“No.” It’s Ajia who answers as he steps close behind her. “It was all true. Every fucking word.”

“So you didn’t start fucking her until—”

“Knox, I swear to God I’m going to pound the fucking shit out of you!” Ajia’s fury isn’t anywhere close to what I’m feeling.

“Get over there, Knox!” Bree jabs her finger toward the table and chairs across the room.

“Fuck you! I’m—”

“Get your ass over there!” She goes up on her tiptoes to get in my face. “You two are not fighting over me!”

I don’t want to move. It goes against everything I am. But Bree keeps glaring at me until I start across the room, to the table in the corner.

Does Ajia have to stroll over to the unmade bed and sprawl against the headboard?

Bree perches against the dresser opposite me. “Okay,” she says. She sounds calm enough, but I know better. I know everything about my baby sister.

Or I thought I did.

“It’s time for an actual discussion,” she adds after a second. “An adult discussion. You’re going to talk—and listen.”

I’m too pissed off to do anything but stare daggers in response.

“You never answered me. How did you find out?”

I open my mouth, want to ask the same question as earlier. That’s your question? You got nothing else to say? Jesus Christ, how did this all get so fucked up?

“Answers, Knox,” Bree insists before I can say a goddamn word. “Adult conversation.”

I shake my head. “How do you think? The fucking Internet.”

“Again?” snaps Ajia.

My look should incinerate them both. “What the fuck did you expect? You tell some chicks at the party that you’re keeping Bree all to yourself, and you think that isn’t going to run the room in, like, five seconds? Then the photographer—the legit one—got all kinds of shots of the two of you together.”

“It’s what Marty wanted,” says Ajia stiffly.

“Yeah? Including one of you kissing when you got on the elevator together?”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Bree says, her voice softer than it was earlier. Good. Maybe she’s finally getting what a shit storm she’s gotten herself into.

“Then maybe it was the video of the two of you making out in the fucking elevator.”

“What the fuck?” Ajia straightens on the bed.

Bree stares. “What video?”

“Security footage.”

She turns her look to Ajia, who shrugs. “Never thought about security cameras in the elevator.”

“How’d anybody get that?”

My sister sounds kind of lost, and so I shrug. “How do the tabloids get any of that shit? Somebody knows somebody who…fill in the blank. I guess somebody had an in with security at the hotel.”

She nods, and I can see she’s trying to process all this shit. Welcome to the world of stardom. I don’t say it. I know it’ll come out shitty, because that’s the way I feel.

“So,” I say instead. “You gonna answer my questions now?”

“As long as they’re reasonable. What do you want to know?”

I shoot Ajia a look that should kill him right there. “How long?”

“Recently,” Bree says carefully. “A couple of days, actually.”

“C’mon, baby.” Ajia leans forward with a soft smile meant totally for my sister. “You know things have been different since we left Austin.”

“Austin!” It explodes from me. “Jesus, Bree! You saw some chick sucking him off there! He’s a goddamn manwhore and you—”

“Who was there to comfort me when I had that nightmare, Knox?” she snaps back. “It was Ajia, because you were too busy fucking your one-and-done for the night. And last night? Last night I came to Ajia’s room, because I was sick of listening to you and your fuck of the night. ‘Spank my ass, Knox, and make me come on your cock!’ Or maybe it was when you said, ‘Take my cock down your throat!’”

Jesus Christ! That chick I fucked so I wouldn’t think too much about London. I was drunk, pissed off, and—fuck! Bree heard that?

“You’re such a goddamn hypocrite, Knox,” she says before I can process it. “You’re fucking anything with two legs and a pussy. No different from what you say Ajia was doing. Yeah, I get it. But if he and I want to see what we’ve got between us—you don’t get a say!”

“See what you’ve got?” I don’t know if I’m more pissed off at the idea of her trying for something with Ajia, or if it’s a delayed reaction from the idea that my baby sister heard me fucking some one-night stand. Jesus!

“There are no guarantees, bro. I know that. But we’ll never know unless we give it a shot. And we’re only a couple of days into that.”

“Bree…” Her name comes out soft. “You’re different from most girls. Different from most chicks we see on tours. You—” I shake my head. “He’s no good for you, baby girl.”

“He’s right about that, kitten,” Ajia agrees. “We all know damn well that you’re too fucking good for me.”

“That is such bullshit, and you both know it!” She pierces me with narrowed eyes and points. “You two wouldn’t be such good friends, and Ajia and I wouldn’t have this connection, if it were. So don’t try to pull any of that crap on me.”

Something changes, some softness in her or something, and she says quietly, “Knox, sweetie…here’s the deal. I’m twenty in a couple of weeks. Not a teenager any longer! Most girls lose their virginity in high school, the back seat of a car or some party or—who the hell knows? They’re with a boy who hasn’t a clue what he’s doing, they’re lucky if he has a condom, and the only thing a girl gets out of it is the fact that she isn’t a virgin anymore. I—”

“Uh…Bree,” Ajia interrupts. “Kitten?”

Bree keeps talking. “I was actually lucky. That wasn’t the case for me. I—”

Tension shoves its way through me, and I straighten, stiff enough that every one of my muscles hurts. “You telling me he busted your cherry?”

“Son of a bitch,” Ajia sighs.

I see the instant she realizes what she admitted. True to everything I know about my sister, she pushes forward.

“That is not what I’m trying to tell you,” she says primly, “and it’s a disgusting way to think of it, but, yes, Ajia was my first. That’s because I wanted him to be. I…waited. I had other chances, there were other boys. I didn’t take them.”

“Because of this motherfucker?” I don’t plan to say the words, but there they are.

“Because I wanted to be with Ajia, yes. And you’re just gonna have to get used to it. Accept it. He’s your friend, part of the band. Those things aren’t going to change simply because I slept with him.”

Jesus, I want to move. Hit something. It takes every ounce of self-control I have to hold myself steady and not destroy everything in this goddamn room. Including—or especially—Ajia Stone.

“There’s shit you don’t know, Bree.” My voice is low and rough. Doesn’t sound anything like me. Doesn’t matter. There’s shit that she has to know, shit she clearly doesn’t or she wouldn’t have let him touch her.

Jesus.

“He’s not the guy you think he is.”

“Knox, let me do it.”

Ajia’s voice sounds weird, and even I can see the pain in his eyes. Too damn bad. This is about my sister.

“Ajia?” She looks at him.

“I’ll tell you everything, baby. I was going to tonight, anyway.”

I snort. He’s had days, weeks—years—to tell her the shit the band and I know, and he hasn’t done it. Won’t do it now, if he can run away from it. Asshole.

“I know everything I need to. He’s not some stranger I just happened to run across, you know,” Bree insists, but is that a trace of uncertainty I hear in her voice?

I speak to Bree, even though I aim my pissed-off glare at Ajia. “He’s got secrets, baby girl. Shit you don’t know. Shit that—”

“Well, fuck me, Knox.” Bree scowls. “We’ve all got shit, and you know that as well as anybody. Ajia’s can’t be any worse—”

“Don’t kid yourself, Bree. If you knew the truth about this fucker, you wouldn’t say that.”

“Don’t start with your drama queen shit, Knox. Now isn’t the time.”

“You gonna tell her?” I snap.

Ajia’s sitting straight and stiff on the bed. “Yeah,” he says. “I said I would.”

“What?” Bree look between him and me. “What are you two talking about?”

“Your boyfriend here.” God, I hate that word.

“Knox…”

“Let me get the conversation started.” Something inside me feels like it’s going to explode, and I know I’ve got to say it and then get the hell out of here. Everything inside of me wants to either fight or fuck—and I have just enough self-control to know I can’t do either.

“About what?” Bree asks carefully.

“The girl.”

“What girl?”

“The one he killed.”